1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to voting systems, and, more particularly, to a universal voting station and tabulation device.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of different types of voting equipment are used in the United States and throughout the world. In many jurisdictions, a voter receives a paper ballot on which is printed the various races to be voted on. The voter votes by darkening or otherwise marking the appropriate mark spaces on the paper ballot. The voter-marked paper ballot may then be inserted into a vote tabulator that scans and tabulates the marked voting selections on the ballot. A variety of electronic voting terminals have also been developed to assist voters who have a physical impairment that would interfere with the manual marking of a ballot. For example, the AutoMARK® voting terminal sold by Election Systems and Software, LLC is designed to receive a blank paper ballot, i.e., the same paper ballot provided to voters who choose to hand-mark the ballot. The voting terminal presents the appropriate election contests to the voter either visually on a display or audibly through a pair of headphones, receives the voter's voting selections through an input device, and machine-marks the appropriate marks spaces on the paper ballot. The machine-marked paper ballot is then inserted into a vote tabulator that processes the ballot in the same manner as a voter-marked paper ballot.